Eating dark green vegetables, seeds and nuts helps reduce premature aging that childhood cancer survivors may experience.
- People who survive childhood cancer have a higher risk of experiencing premature aging, that is, developing diseases linked to aging earlier than others.
- Eating more dark green vegetables and nuts/seeds could help combat this complication of cancer treatments, according to a new study.
- Every 0.5 cup increase per 1,000 kcal of dark green vegetables consumed reduces the risk of being in the “high risk” category of premature aging by almost half.
Thanks to advances in medicine, more and more children are surviving cancer and living longer. However, treatments can have late consequences, including premature aging.
“We are studying how diet influences the aging process, with the goal of developing new methods to mitigate these effects. This research could benefit not only childhood cancer survivors, but also other populations at risk of aging prematurely”explains the study’s lead author, Mei Wang of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, to AscoPost.
His work, published in the journal Journal of Clinical Oncology on January 23, highlighted that dark green vegetables, nuts and seeds are beneficial to survivors of childhood cancer.
Childhood cancer: dark green vegetables reduce premature aging
To find out which nutritional habits were the most protective for people who developed malignant tumors during childhood, researchers followed 3,322 participants aged 18 to 65 who had survived childhood cancer. 59% of them had been diagnosed with cancer before the age of 10, 24% between 10 and 14 years and 17% at 15 years or older. Just over a third (36%) had developed leukemia and 19% lymphoma. 13% survived central nervous system tumors and 6% survived Wilms tumors. Two in ten volunteers were at average risk of premature aging while 8% were classified as having a high risk.
The scientists examined the composition of their diet for a year through a questionnaire. This is how they noticed that the consumption of dark green vegetables (broccoli, kale, spinach, watercress, etc.), nuts and seeds (pumpkin seeds, chia, sunflower seeds, sesame, etc.) reduced premature aging. survivors of childhood cancer.
Premature aging: what consumption to benefit from the beneficial effects?
In detail, each increase of 0.5 cup per 1,000 kcal of dark green vegetables consumed reduces by almost half the risk of being in the “high risk” category of premature aging. For every 28 g (1 oz) increase per 1,000 kcal of nuts or seeds eaten, there was a notable decrease in the risk of premature aging.
Additionally, higher consumption of refined grains is associated with an increased risk of premature aging. The authors add that “certain nutrients found in vegetables and fruits, such as dietary folate, beta-carotene, lutein/zeaxanthin, and vitamin E, were associated with a lower risk of premature aging.”
After reading this work, Dr. Fumiko Chino of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, who was not involved in the research, believes that “This demonstrates the critical role of modifiable lifestyle factors, such as diet, in improving the quality of life of childhood cancer survivors, long after their treatment ends. The goal is to shift the “focus from simple survival to thriving post-cancer treatment, marking a new era in survival research”.
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